The North Atlantic Alliance is preparing for a large-scale armed conflict with Russia, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said at a briefing for military attaches and representatives of foreign embassies accredited to Moscow, quoted by TASS.
“The military construction of the bloc is entirely focused on preparing for a large-scale, high-intensity armed conflict with Russia.”, Fomin said at the briefing, which according to the Russian agency was attended by 105 foreign military attachés and representatives of embassies of 65 countries, including 18 people representing 14 NATO countries.
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According to him, in NATO’s doctrinal documents of recent years, such as NATO’s 2019 military strategy, the Russian Federation is directly, “without any equivalents, identified as a major source of threats to the coalition’s security.”
Deliberate provocations by the North Atlantic Alliance near Russia’s borders are likely to escalate into an armed conflict, Fomin was quoted as saying by TASS.
“Recently, the Alliance has moved to the practice of direct provocations with a high risk of escalation in armed confrontation.”said Fomin.
He cited as an example the attempt of the British destroyer “Defender” on June 23, 2021 to penetrate the territorial waters of the Russian Federation off the coast of Crimea.
“It is significant that the actions of the ship of the British Navy were provided by the American strategic reconnaissance aircraft RC-135”said Fomin.
According to him, in the Black Sea region compared to 2020, the intensity of the use of reconnaissance aircraft has increased by more than 60 percent. The number of excursions increased from 436 to 710.
NATO has also repeatedly reported increased Russian military activity not only in the Black Sea but also in the Baltic, around the Arctic Circle and near NATO borders.
The presence in the Black Sea waters of ships and support vessels of non-regional NATO countries, according to the Deputy Minister, “has in fact become permanent”.
“From January to December this year, 30 visits by NATO ships were made, in 2020 there were 23. The total length of stay is over 400 days, in 2020 – 359”said Fomin.
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He also stressed that after the United States withdrew from the Treaty on the Elimination of Medium-Range and Short-Range Missiles, NATO was in fact ignoring Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to impose a moratorium on the deployment of new medium-range and short-range missiles. action. Europe and the possibility of developing peer review measures to address existing concerns.
“Deploying such missiles in Europe is unlikely to improve NATO security”concluded Fomin.
Fomin accused the alliance of planning a military containment of Russia, while he had previously paid more attention to joint projects.
NATO has stepped up its presence and activities following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s support for the separatist uprising in Donbas, as the union’s eastern flanks, especially the Baltic republics and Poland, feel threatened by Russia’s actions. However, according to Fomin, the deterioration of relations between Russia and NATO began earlier in 2014.
“Since the end of the Cold War, the Russian Federation has repeatedly tried to find new forms of cooperation with NATO, to create a stable, equal system of European security for all. It would be wrong to think that the deterioration of the Russia-NATO situation began in 2014. “said Fomin.
According to him, “the declared goals of equal cooperation by the alliance were not met much earlier, in fact immediately after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact.”
“At the same time, Russia was then unprecedentedly open to a constructive partnership with the West and carried out a voluntary demilitarization of the country along its western borders. An unprecedented withdrawal of troops from the Warsaw Pact countries has also taken place. “, he said.
Fomin added that NATO currently maintains tens of thousands of its extra-regional troops and hundreds of military equipment in its eastern flank countries and conducts regular large-scale military exercises there.
The deputy minister also accused his country’s “western partners” of provoking “events in Ukraine” to justify the suspension of cooperation with Russia.
He said that “It was the United States and its allies that supported the country’s bloody coup,” said the new administration, which came to power illegally with the support of the West.
Fomin also accused NATO of neglecting Russia’s interests in recent years and refusing to have an equal dialogue with it. This is one of the reasons for the “fiasco” of the Western allies in Afghanistan, he added.
According to him, NATO is deliberately using the Arctic for military purposes (something that Russia is doing no less – b.r.), the strategic forces of the alliance are increasingly involved in exercises near Russia’s borders in this region.
Fomin said that the Russian Ministry of Defense expects the fastest reaction of NATO to Moscow’s proposals for security guarantees and is ready to start negotiations on them at any convenient time.
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